This is another joint blog post Michael Clark and I wrote together. As always, it needs to be seen against the backdrop of our own religious history. We both have had many years of experience in different church groups that were not founded on Christ and see why Paul said, “For I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.” (1 Cor 2:2 ASV)

Imagine you hear or read about a new branch of Christianity and you, of course, want to know whether what those people believe might be the truth or not. How can we quickly discern if we are dealing with real or only fake Christianity? To come straight to the point, without spiritual discernment received by God’s Spirit, the firmness of our conviction will be shaken again and again, depending on our moods, feelings, thoughts, and reasoning. T. Austin Sparks wrote the following about spiritual understanding.

Crooked trees after being pruned… not that beautiful yet 😉(Photo by Susanne Schuberth)

Now this is a silly question, Susanne! Through the whole Bible we find witnesses who were healed by God, especially in the New Testament. “Yes… but today?” Having been tortured by many sicknesses all my life, my faith in being healed by God is not the strongest, as I need to honestly admit. However, I have had a few healing experiences during the last year which caused my mustard seed faith to increase a bit. 😉
Apropos Bible, I was just thinking of the situation where Jesus healed a certain woman who had been sick for a very long time. Let’s take a closer look at that special event.

The more we dare to freely admit before God how our real heart condition is and who we really are, the more we will be able to let other people into our hearts as well. The more we understand that we are truly loved without strings attached, the more we will long to show others how much they are loved too.

If there was another way to encounter the Living God and to stay in His holy and pure presence 24/7 here on earth and eternally too, I would have immediately said, “No, thank you, I am content as it is, no more death in my life needed.” Well, having been plunged into the second part of the dark night of the soul, the dark night of the spirit, in fall 2013, yet without interruption only one year ago, I today gave in after so many struggles with and against God since I saw it makes no sense to pray to God that I might have it my own way any longer. That means, if this death will continue to last for years in which I neither have any interest in God nor in spiritual things and in which God gives me more and more sickness and pain, then so be it. Period.

It is not the loveable person that needs to be loved. It is the unlovable person, the clamoring child, the rebellious adult, the nasty friend, the raging parent, in a nutshell, it is the SINNER that needs to be healed. If we react to misbehavior by speaking mere words only, they might be able to bring across what we mean, but without love they will never touch the heart of someone who has gone wild. Well, “words” alone are based on knowledge… what we think we know or what we feel. But if our words are not tempered with grace, they can wound and kill. For it is written,

A hot-tempered man stirs up strife, but he who is slow to anger quiets contention. (Proverbs 15:18 RSVA)

Know this, my beloved brethren. Let every man be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger, for the anger of man does not work the righteousness of God. (James 1:19-20 RSVA)

“Thine eyes shall see the king in his beauty: they shall behold the land that is very far off.” (Isaiah 33:17 KJV) – Photo by Susanne Schuberth

On yesterday’s bike ride with the Lord the weather was not that fine. It would be pretty cold and looked as if it might rain sooner or later. Also, I was extremely tired and felt rather low because of a certain dizziness and some physical pain, too. As I was struggling to get ahead against the strong wind, I suddenly saw some lovely spots of color in an altogether gray and green picture that nature presented. I could not help but stop my bike and gather the colorful bouquet of flowers you can see in the photo I posted above. 😉

“For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.” (Rom 8:6 ESV)

Basically, it would be so easy to discern whether we have set our mind on the Spirit or on the flesh if we only took a short glance into our hearts and check them for their peaceful or restless condition. The problem is, as soon as we sense that there is NO peace at all, we might be inclined to look at our own failures or to those of others instead of taking a short glance to God who allowed Satan to bring us into that confused, disheartened, sometimes even hopeless condition. We can be sure that the devil always tries everything in order to keep us restless and discouraged. He does not cease telling us about our wrongdoings or about those of others in order to keep our thoughts running like a hamster in his wheel – from past events to the future, back to the past, and so on and so forth. The sorrow and those negative feelings that go with these thoughts ALWAYS come from the devil, too.

I do hope that the excerpt by Dorothy L. Sayers below gives you some food for thought as to rethinking those concepts of youth and age our current culture proclaims, and which, in my view, have infiltrated the Church more than she is aware of. We read about “senior pastors” who are in their 40s (at most) and about training the next generation of church leaders, pastors, and elders, by simply teaching them tradition, theological theories, and doctrines. Indeed, the amount of books one has read does not make him spiritually mature. And the number of years we have believed in Jesus does not make us any more mature than a newborn child (speaking spiritually here). Actually, it is all about experiencing God in our own life and knowing that He can be trusted in every given situation. This kind of faith is nothing that can be taught and nothing we can soak in by reading about it only. Testimonies from others might point us in the right direction if they whet our appetite for experiencing God’s love and His kingdom first-hand. Yet they cannot provide the meat we only get when we leave the area of being fed by men and their different views of Christianity far behind. We need to feed on Christ who alone is our true food and drink.

“If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!” (Mt 7:11 ESV)

Boy, who would have thought that our Old Adam and Eve are evil persons who can do good things, to be sure, yet cannot truly love due to their immanent wretchedness? But wait…can’t they love somehow, though? We know from our own experience that every human being can fall in love which is a wonderful thing, however, it’s still selfish love. Since as soon as the beloved person rejects the one who still looks through rose-colored glasses, love as it was before is over. And that we love our children is normal, too, isn’t it? Even if they reject us one day.

As soon as a baby realizes that it was urged to leave the security and coziness of its mother’s womb, s/he tries to hold fast onto something that is tangible and offers security for the anxious heart. Similarly, if our eyes are not yet accustomed to the new light which spiritually shines on us, we urgently need something to cling to until we feel secure again and can let go of our pillars that are perceptible to the senses.

Today I was reminded of Jesus’ dialogue with the woman at the well. We read,

The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.” Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.” Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he. Just then his disciples came back. They marveled that he was talking with a woman, but no one said, “What do you seek?” or, “Why are you talking with her?” So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?” (Jn 4:19-29 ESV)

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FEAR NOT…

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him."
(John 3:16-17 ESV)

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